The physician said, "Your loved one is suffering from a progressive neurological disease called Alzheimer's type dementia." This diagnosis is given every day to people in the Coastal Georgia area. What does this mean for the patient and for the people who live with her? Is anyone else in the area dealing with this diagnosis? Is there a cure? So what now?
Alzheimer's dementia is more common than you may think. There are many families, just like yours, who are dealing with the memory, mood, physical, emotional, and sensory changes they see in a family member.
The Alzheimer's Association Coastal GA Regional office in Savannah is a good source for information about local resources. Call 1-800-272-3900 24 hour Helpline or go to alz.org for current information.
Mark your calendar for the second Monday of each month at 1:30pm and visit with others in your community who are providing care for a person with dementia causing illness. We meet informally in room 200 at Statesboro First United Methodist Church. Caregivers are encouraged to come to receive emotional support and locate resources through discussion, videos, shared knowledge and concerns in a confidential, small group setting.
For July, he facilitator has prepared information on changing family roles including ideas for explaining the disease to teens and young people.
Although there is no cure for Alzheimer's now, there is significant research underway to find a way to prevent this brain disease, treat the symptoms, and slow the progress of the disease.
AD may be strongly suspected if a person's memory for recent events, his ability to care for himself and others, his ability to communicate his thoughts, his perception of events and objects around him, and a change in his emotional state are noticed by those living closest to him. He may have a lot of trouble with understanding time and money concepts or withdraw from hobbies/activities he once enjoyed. There may be anger toward the one who is trying to help him.
Alzheimer's is a disease of the brain that typically occurs after age 60 and is the sixth leading cause of death in the USA. It is not at all uncommon and yet people avoid discussing this, perhaps because they do not know that so many of their neighbors are living with the same changes in their family life.
Meet with other caregivers who understand your concerns, share ideas, learn some new ways to help those with memory loss , and link up with community resources. Join us Monday afternoon, July 14th, August 11, etc.

Did you think that most people with Alzheimer's and other significant memory loss diseases are living in a nursing home or care facility? Statistics from the Alzheimer's Association prove that families and friends provide the great majority of the care needed within their own home as the patient gradually loses ...

If an elderly family member no longer acts in a loving manner toward you, it may be due to a physical change in their brain, not a true measure of their affection toward you. The personalities of people with Alzheimer's Disease or related dementias may change dramatically. They may become ...

During the holiday season, families gather and reconnect with relatives they have not seen in a period of time. Perhaps in the rush of the festivities, some family members began to notice significant changes in the speech, movement, perception, mood or thinking of an older member of the family. The ...

"There are so many things that she can't do safely anymore, I feel like my sister, with memory loss, is bored. Maybe that is why she follows me around and won't give me any personal time! What can I do when she seems anxious, paces the floor, and shadows me?" ...

Just because you have memory problems that doesn't mean you have Alzheimer's and just because you have Parkinson's it doesn't mean that you will develop Alzheimer's but there is a relationship between the two diseases. If you think of a brain as a small watermelon, the region sitting directly at ...